Hi, I'm trying to create a model of my living room for a redesign project. The problem I am having is getting the Bryce view to have the visual scale (sense of space) that the actual room has. I know there are issues and tricks to doing this, but I'm not sure if Bryce can manage all of them. Bear with me, okay? My living room is 20' long x 12' wide by 8' high. Not huge, but it does have a sense of space when I am standing in it. I tried modeling just the shape of the room using a cube object. I decided to make each Bryce unit represent an inch. In that way of measuirng a 1 foot cube would be 12 x 12 x 12. (as 12" = 1') So in the Attributes box for the "room" cube I set it to: x - 144 (12'), y - 96 (8'), and z - 240 (20'). The cube is set so the bottom is at the ground plane level. So the Y origin is Bryce 48 units. Since my eye level is about 5', I set the camera to Y - 60. I use the default FOV of 60 for the camera and scaling at 100% Of course, I put in a light source, since the camera is inside the cube. And I positiond the camera in a corner where there normally is a door, so I could compare the Bryce image to what I actually see (minus the color and furniture, of course!) The problem is that when rendering at these settings, the "room" seems very zoomed in. It has no sense of space as it does when I am actually standing in it. The ceiling especially seems much too low. I tried different FOVs (75, 90) which increase the sense of space but also introduce distortion. I also tried camera scaling (in the Attributes box), but that seems to be the same as setting the FOV (I can't find an explanation in the Bryce 5 manual for camera scaling) Now, I know that I have peripheral vision and the camera in Bryce does not, but I have seen room renderings that have a sense of space. I just can't figure out what I am missing! Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks, I appreciate any suggestions!

is your cube booleaned, or solid? if it is solid, the refraction can make a diffrence. perhaps making six cube primitives for the sides and top and bottom of the room would be better suited. have you tried being a bit inexact with the location of the camera? perhaps you should exagerate the height of the room a bit to give a greater sense of size. also, rather than render the room as the same size as the document, perhaps you might try changing the render size to reflect what you want to be seen ie; if you want the room to seem very tall, render the scene as a tall rectangle, perhaps with the camera closer to the floor, looking up at an angle. I haven't any other suggestions, so I hope these help big_hoovie

There is a camera distortion that takes place with the FOV, etc. I believe this is intentional and there are some workarounds. 1. Ditch the box idea and simply make surface walls ceiling, floor etc, then whatever wall is behind the camera, get rid of that, move the camera back, and zoom in a bit so you don't see the edges. You'll have to turn your sky off or play a whole lot. If you have windows with a sky backround showing through in the room, this won't work, only on a closed room with no windows. Use light objects to light the room. 2. If you're going to stay with the box idea, then elongate one end, make your room double or triple in length and put all your stuff at one end, the camera at the other. Zoom the camera a bit. 3. Make a really huge room (which has the overall effect of making the camera smaller). You can position the camera any where you want and the distortion tends to go away. You'll have to turn off the fog and haze because that will start to show inside the room. (which means your sky showing in a window is not all that exciting). You'll also have to really enlarge the lights and turn up the intensity. You will also loose some detail on the far wall, but keep tweaking it. Hope that helps.

By the way, FOV of 52-55 or so is more like the human eye.

Make the room large and use descrete pieces (i.e. cubes for each wall. Lighting is always a challenge, so just keep playing with it until you get what you like. An important thing to remember is to have a ceiling if you leave the atmosphere on. This room is 18' by 18' with each Bryce unit equal to 1" Several radial lights in the fireplace and one each for the candles and the lamp and the ceiling fixture. The camera is positioned at y=60 FOV is 50 degrees and scale is 80%. Changing the scale allow a more "wide-eyed" view without distortion.

Actually the FOV that is closest to the human eye when looking at a wide scene is close to 150 so I usually use 120if I can get out of the distortion.

To All: As usual, you come to the rescue with good ideas and strategies to solve the problem. Thank you all so much! I am trying all your suggestions and learning from each. Special note to Nukeboy: WONDERFUL picture, very much along the lines of what I am trying to get to! I am sure others will agree that it is a very nice image! Bet it took a long time to render though, what with all the lights. But I agree, lighting is part of the equation, especially the role played by shadows to force a feeling of depth. I will play with all these ideas. Thanks again!

Thanks for the compliment! The scene took about three hours to render. I created it with the same idea in mind that you had: a little interior decorating. I ended up just playing with it as a learning exercise.